The Vanguard (The Longest Journey)
The Vanguard, a breakaway faction of the Sentinel, want the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia reunited, and their plan in TLJ was to do this by controlling the Guardian. They originally represented the scientists present at the Divide, the Starkian 6 of the 13 founding members of the Sentinel. Although originally faithful to the Sentinel, distance from their Arcadian brothers led to their forgetting the importance of the Balance. They grew to desire the reunion of the Two Worlds, which finally led to a schism. The Vanguard's plan to install their own Guardian involved finding and obtaining children "born to the Balance" - i.e. Guardians-to-be - and running experiments in an attempt to control them. These experiments have largely been a failure, though one resulted in Gordon Halloway's being split into two. Gordon later became head of the Vanguard's secret police. In Stark the Vanguard are working under the cover of the Church of Voltec: because Starkers are unaware of the Balance and the Divide they cannot recruit openly. Through this religion and the company Malkuth Technologies Incorporated they wield great power in Newport and across the world. According to Cortez, "they own multinational companies. They own planets. They own armies." When April visits the MTI building on Grendel Avenue, she notes that the company logo, a cross through a circle, probably symbolises the destruction of the Balance. In Arcadia, April discovers that the ideas and theories of the Vanguard are starting to appeal to many of the people there. One of them is Lorhan, a captive of Roper Klacks, who scorns the idea of the Balance and the Guardian calling him a "naked guy in a tower." He says that the Vanguard are right, that "magic and science belong together, in the hands of the people". The Marcurian Cups Handler is gleeful at the prospect of a reunited Earth, whereas Karek the map seller is more circumspect, but thinks that machines, rather than Arcadian chaos and magic, are the future of mankind. The Vanguard are powerful in Stark, where they have a black ops squad, advanced technology, genetic engineering and vast commercial interests at their disposal. In Arcadia their agents include the bellicose Tyren and the Alchemist Roper Klacks, although their recruiting tactics apparently didn't work on the Gribbler. Jacob McAllen's role is not entirely spelled out. He is old enough to have led the schism of the Vanguard and is also CEO of MTI, so he is generally seen as being head of the Vanguard by default. It is possible he took this role at a later point, however, rather than having been there from the beginning. The status of the Vanguard after the apparent demise of McAllen and redemption of Gordon is unknown. Their influence in Stark would have been severely weakened if not destroyed by the Collapse, while thier influence in Arcadia is also minimal due to Azadi exterminating the Tyren and usurping their roles as bringers of technology. Leader Jacob McAllen is the founder of the Vanguard, charismatic leader of its Stark arm the Church of Voltec, and CEO of Malkuth Technologies Incorporated. Unlike Cortez he has accepted modern life in Newport with all its trappings - he has embraced technology, corporate life and religious expression. McAllen is extremely intelligent and ruthless, and masterful at manipulating people. The crux of McAllen's plan is to place a corrupt Guardian in the Tower and use him to give McAllen control over both Stark and Arcadia. To this end he captured Gordon Halloway - a guardian-to-be - and subjected him to the Vanguard experimentation that split him in two. Gordon eventually became the head of McAllen's secret police, and effective second-in-command: McAllen even trusted him to capture Cortez on his own (with a "small army"). McAllen also uses his technology to facilitate the creation of Warrior Shifters, to hold Cortez prisoner and remove the Red Jewel that he holds. McAllen is a thoughtful, scornful character. He is a calculating man "but not cruel", as he tells April. He appears to have a marked dislike of April for some reason - possibly because, although she is also a member of the Draic Kin, she was raised in a human family. He says he has spent a considerable amount of time and money tracking April, "before you were born, before I even knew your name." This is interesting: it implies that McAllen was searching for the one foretold in the prophecies, but didn't realise she was going to be one of the Draic Kin at first. This may be the source of his antagonism. Despite the fact they appear to be roughly the same age, McAllen has a marked hatred of his brother, and mentions to April at one point that Cortez "broke the rules. He brought you into -- he broke the rules." However, he does try to convince Cortez to join him, saying "the time of dragons has come", but Cortez scorns him and the two do battle. McAllen is last seen in his true form as the Green of the Kin, falling from the roof of the MTI Building. His true fate is unknown. Covers The Church of Voltec is the cover for the Vanguard in Stark. They are associated with the mighty corporation MTI. The head of The Church of Voltec is Jacob McAllen. Their front is to be a peaceful religion dedicated only to meditation and philosophy, but their goals tend more towards world domination. The principal enemy of The Church of Voltec is the Sentinel, however they are not numerous in Stark, and their numbers are dwindling even in Arcadia. Malkuth Technologies Incorporated is almost as large a corporation as Bokamba/Mercer. Its headquarters - one of the largest buildings in Newport - are reached via Grendel Avenue. The front desk is staffed by Gerold Rosenberg. MTI is owned by the Church of Voltec, which is in turn a front for the Vanguard; therefore Jacob McAllen is its CEO. MTI is immensely powerful, and absolutely ruthless; at the age of eighteen Burns Flipper had his legs removed by MTI goons in retaliation for cracking into their computer system. Cortez says that they "own planets. They own armies." Therefore, like Bokamba/Mercer, MTI might also sponsor survey ships looking for inhabitable worlds: they already own the Morning Star space station, which explains Adrian's presence in its secret prison. MTI appears also to focus on genetic engineering, as can be seen in McAllen's development of the Warrior Shifters. When April sees the MTI logo on the reception desk in MTI's lobby - a crossed-out circle - she wonders if it symbolises the destruction of the Balance. Troops Warrior Shifters are Jacob McAllen's creations, intended to serve him. They appear to be one of the Vanguard's many experimental programs. When April arrives in McAllen's office, she sees that he has in vitro tubes with mutated humans growing in them, and McAllen sets a mutant on April in the laboratory, but it isn't clear if these are the warrior Shifters he's referring to. The implication is that they would serve McAllen in Arcadia, either carrying out his orders or gaining intelligence on his behalf. How he developed them is not known, but it would appear that McAllen somehow knows how to induce the ability to Shift. As it is never explained whether the Shifting talent is genetically inherited or conferred in some other way, this raises some disturbing questions. It is not known what happened to the warrior Shifters after McAllen's disappearance. The Tyren are humanoids populating the land west of Ayrede. Brian Westhouse refers to them as both "trolls" and "goblins", both of which go some way to describing their appearance. The term Tyren is also applied to the land controlled by the Tyren, as well as their capital city and possibly their native language. Crow mentions a possible Ayrede slang term for them - "it's not tyrocks, it's the Tyren" - which hints at the long-standing animosity Marcurians have for them. The Tyren have for generations wished to take possession of Marcuria, partly because of Marcuria's aggressive military policy in the past, and partly because the city is now peaceful and enriched by busy trade routes. At the time of The Longest Journey, the Tyren are allied with the Vanguard, further straining their relations with the Marcurians who are guided by the Sentinel's teachings. Vestrum Tobias mentions they have been whipped into a religious fervour by the Vanguard to spur them into a 'holy war', but we know little of the Tyren's religious sensibilities. However, they have a particular interest in the Stone Disk. In the past, Tyren soldiers, alongside Sentinel traitors, attempted to steal the Disk but were thwarted by the Mother herself. More recently, the Tyren ambassador has been asking questions about the Disk in the Ayrede Council chambers. The Tyren were involved in the pursuit of April Ryan through Arcadia. Their pursuit is hindered, however, when she takes to the sea, as the Tyren care little for water and have no navy. At the end of TLJ they have invaded Marcuria, with the Chaos Vortex at the lead. Unfortunately they make fickle allies and might in fact function more as mercenaries: as Cortez says, "Those beasts are not much for loyalty, but promise them money and power - the Vanguard have probably offered them half of the Northlands, perhaps even Marcuria itself for their services." Crow comments that he doesn't fancy the idea of living under Tyren rule, because the language of those 'barbarians' sounds like "arrrgh, rarr, raaagggh - not particularly refined." Ironically, the term 'barbarian' was coined by the ancient Greeks as a slur on their Persian invaders, because to them the Persian language sounded like "bah, bah, bah". The last conflict of Ayrede with the Tyren long ago was commemorated in Marcuria by a large grove of trees. In Dreamfall, it is revealed that the Tyren invasion of Marcuria was successful, and they actually occupied the city for a short time. However, the arrival of the Azadi took them completely by surprise. With their Cloudships, technology and religious fervour (maybe they had a better religious fervour than the Tyren), the Azadi drove the Tyren out the same year they invaded. They were not satisfied with the mere removal of the Tyren, though - they hunted them down, and now there are only scattered numbers of the Tyren left in the Northlands. Category:Ancient Faction Category:Enemy Faction